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122 Years of Extraterrestrial Combat

The
Bureau:
XCOM
Declassified is the latest
in the franchise and
purposefully strays away
from previous genres
in which the series has
dabbled.
Increasing
the
action-orientated
elements and playing
down the more strategic
side the series is known
for, The Bureau provides a
new setting, a new method
of gameplay and a whole
new experience for X-COM zealots, pleasing some
and, ahem, alienating others.
Carter approaches combat in a melding of Gears of
War and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. During heavy
firefights Carter can slow down time as bullets
whizz past his face and command his buddies to
perform a variety of tasks to assist the destruction
of the alien menace. Tactics play a heavy role as
one false decision can have your squad bleed out,
so plan your attacks wisely. Or frankly you can
go all Leroy Jenkins and blast your way through
most of the game without any real help from your
human brethren. But it’s not how the game should
be played.

agents around him, and eliminate the alien threat.
As more is learned of these ‘Outsiders’, the more
important the role of this infant XCOM becomes.
By the end (there are four possible endings
depending on your actions throughout The
Bureau), the aliens are dealt with in a manner of
speaking. Carter and his fellow agents kill most
of the invading extraterrestrials, and succeed in
repelling the rest back into space and beyond. Their
attempted invasion and enslavement of humanity
is successfully covered up from the public.

37 years pass until the events of the first X-COM:
Enemy Unknown. Reports across the globe of alien
abductions and sightings are rife, so the world’s
Tactics are key to a full experience, but not always leaders convene and reassemble the secret
necessary. You can happily treat most of the game organisation X-COM to rid the world of the aliens
as a shooter and keep the tactical planning to a who threaten our very existence.
minimum, which stands against the very nature of
brand X-COM.
As you and your squad battle on, communications
are severed with the President by the aliens,
leading Carter to form his own version of XCOM
– Extraterrestrial Combat Unit – with the surviving
XCOM: Enemy Within Special Edition 2013

‘Carter approaches
combat in a melding of
Gears of War and Tom
Clancy’s Ghost Recon.’

13 • GameOn Magazine